Percentages to Know; Tip for California Pacific Charter School Online Math Students
(Provided by CalPac, Thursday, June 07, 2012)
Percentages are one of the most common and useful math concepts. Percentages are virtually everywhere, used in voting polls, sales, and tips. More on how percents are used can be found athttp://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_are_percents_useful_in_making_comparisons. With a little practice on-line math students will be able to estimate and calculate percents quickly.
Think Dollar
To remember 50%, think of 50 cents. To change from percent to decimal and to a fraction, remember that 50 cents is .50 and is also ½ of a dollar. So 50%= .5= ½ Now you know that percentages greater than 50% are more than half and, ones less than 50% are less than half. You also know that you can find 50% of a number by taking half of that number. For Example 50% of 200 is 100, because half of 200 is 100.
You can use the dollar to remind you about 25% and 75%. 25% is .25 or one quarter which is ¼ or 1 out of 4 quarters in a dollar. 75% is .75 or ¾, which is 3 out of 4 quarters.
Think dollar and you will remember that 25% is ¼, 50% is ½ and 75% is ¾.
Move the Decimal
10% is another favorite. Ten percent is easily found by moving the decimal once to the left, and can be done in your head. 10% of 100 is 10. 10% of 300 is 30. 10% of 50 is 5. Do you see the pattern? 10% of $36.50 is $3.65.
Once you have 10%, it is easy to find any multiple of 10. For example, to find 20%, which is two times 10%, just multiply by two. So 20% of $45.00 is 2 * $4.50 or $9.00. 60% would be 6 times $4.50 or $27.00.
Using Halves
And once you have 10%, you can just half it to get 5%. For example 10% of 800 is 80 and so 5% of 800 is half of 80 or 40.
Practice with Decimals is an Important Part of On-line School Curriculum
On-line math students should practice percentages, and quickly students will have a better number sense and estimation will be easy. Students who build these skills will improve math scores and overall school performance.
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